“Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecc. 1:2). We are not special, and neither is our work, our accomplishments, nor our acquired knowledge, wealth, and experiences. You can spend your whole life working for a company and once you retire, some new kid replaces you and they give you your gold watch and forget you existed. You can spend your whole life acquiring knowledge and wisdom, but it only leads to frustration because you can only know one trillionth of what is knowable. Even what is known can be taken away from you by a degenerative disease like dementia and everyone’s knowledge will ultimately be pointless once they are dead.
Pursuing pleasure, wealth, and fame is also a huge waste of time. Not only are all of these things fickle and can be taken away from us at any moment, but they also will certainly be taken away from us after we die. Even if we try to amass wealth and build a legacy for our churches during our lifetime, after we die everyone could forsake the church and all the work we did during our lifetime. Although our names may be engraved on a little plaque on the pew, nobody will have a clue who we are because our memory is long forgotten. No congregation from the New Testament has survived to the present. They either died altogether or committed apostasy. We would be foolish to think that we will be more successful than the apostles.
We should spend our time living in the moment rather than being so caught up in achieving goals. Instead of working so hard on a project that will ultimately be meaningless, take time to enjoy your spouse, your kids, and your friends. Share your meals with random people. Eat, drink, and be merry. Dress in your favorite clothes. Listen to your favorite record, album, or playlist. Enjoy working hard and learning for its own sake rather than just a means to an end. Ultimately, do not take yourself or your significance too seriously. Rather focus on fearing God and keep his commandments, because this is the entirety of our existence (Ecc.. 12:13).
